Nice to find The End of Everything here... www.theguardian.com/books/2025/d...

Lots happened in the first half of this year, almost too much to take in, really; then hardly anything at all in the second. Favourite event: they were all brilliant.

Graves Park, Shef. Though in winter light they look like animals these are actually authentic cardboard cut-outs.

Merry Christmas. One thing I learned in 2025 was that you haven't lived unless you've experienced the exquisite pain of accidentally getting hot Marmite in a fresh paper cut.

Untitled, 2015 - by Ileana Serban

First light 7:17

My piece on why Keir Starmer isn't turning out to be the human rights hero he talked himself up as is in the Long Read's best of 2025 - and in great company... www.theguardian.com/news/2025/de...

This little chap has really brightened up the year end. Raised on a diet of scrambled eggs, bougie dog food, stolen slippers and ten thousand kisses. The house just didn‘t feel right without a dog. So here he is, a 16 week old Patterdale with the heart of a lion. Merry Christmas everyone!

"It was not finished," she said coldly.

Why would people feel worse off living in a society where bridges are collapsing Vs living in one where bridges are being built? A total mystery.

You can't count a park in income figures, or a pub. But they matter. Universal services, social security, all this stuff was being fought for and won, and now we're at the end of a process of taking it away.

The neoliberal state has spent 50 years systematically dismantling state capacity, selling off the public sphere, taking away all the things that substitute for wages in society, like public space, healthcare, social care, even free time. And then it complains people don't feel well off.

Jean Rhys being furious with Diana Athill that Wide Sargasso Sea went out with two unnecessary words: “then” and “quite”.

money poor but earplug rich, what more can you ask

Yet another day, and no news of the hunger strikers on our national BBC News channel. Disgraceful.

Nice one to the 10 people who've already registered for the OFFICIAL KESHED ONLINE LAUNCH on 5th Feb, the week before publication. Anyone wanting to join the fun, feat. me being interviewed by @regretteruane.bsky.social etc, please email [email protected] and I'll add you to The List 👍😎

that utterly cursed pic of Norris as the Joker

I hated The Mastermind with a passion for about 3 days, then realised to what degree it wasn't really a retro movie at all--its revelation is of contemporary character & entitlements.

Down goes one of the absolutely foundational pillars of internet populism. It'll be a slow slump at first, benchmarked by specific events & quite ironic laughter. But then the slow, steady, acumulating slide of a damp spoil heap.

Hampstead Heath, 08:28

Good morning. Lottie walked and came back with half of the moors. Time for a brew.

𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲

Lost the post & forgot what the the question was, but my answer was going to be Lady & the Tramp, what can you say

Now reading Missing Person by Patrick Modiano, translated by Daniel Weissbort.

dew pond

US galleys for xmas x

Good morning from the Socialist Republic of Hebdonia. Lottie walked. Time for a brew. .

Not now, ominous but somehow pathetic lemon-shaped exoplanet. www.newscientist.com/article/2508...

Are you looking to join a panel for Weird Modernisms in Loughborough, UK next summer? This one on weird epistemologies might be for you!

Don't know anything about this metier, these times, this woman, but by the end of the piece I was just as delighted as if I'd read about Eve Babitz or someone. A kind of life you couldn't even have been on the edge of, but bigger than life-sized. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

ideas, blork

OFFER VERY LITTLE INFORMATION ABOUT YOURSELF

having to explain to the cat sitter that Cordy isn't registered with a vet, at the vet's own suggestion/request

loathed Frankenstein, loved A House of Dynamite, going to watch The Ice Tower tonight

Every week I receive offers of work, for little or no payment.

Evening https://www.wikiart.org/en/paul-serusier/evening-1

2016 by Sarah Hesketh was named in the Guardian as a Poetry Book of the Year. Booksellers ordering in from Gardners are told “Publisher out of Stock”. The book's in stock both at the distributor and here, within arm’s reach – order from the CB editions website and I’ll post within 24 hours.

Comer Woods, 12.12.25

@jwomack.bsky.social And after Waylon’s rendition of MacArthur Park had me on the verge of tears, Steve Brown introduced me to this, and equivalent experience of an entirely different flavor m.youtube.com/watch?v=382T...

Hampstead Heath, 08:09

In an ominous ruined harbor, Saint Augustine of Hippo encounters a tiny child trying to empty the sea. Wonderfully chilling scene from 1623 by François de Nomé, whose day is today.

Over Owler Tor, Hathersage. Is there millstone grit on Mars, I wonder?

Thames at Barnes Bridge, London, around 3:00 pm

I'm delighted to announce that we've now sold over 100 sets of the new US edition of Dorothy Richardson's Pilgrimage. And I hope it's a special sign that the 100th set was purchased by none other than the superb writer Carmen Maria Machado. Reading Pilgrimage 2026 starts in 19 days!

It's an honour to have written a foreword for a new edition of perhaps my favourite novel (or is it a novella?), A Month In The Country by JL Carr. It's published by Quince Tree Press, now run by the Carr family. Do investigate their other wonderful wares. www.quincetreepress.co.uk

Vapour trail.